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HISTORICAL A 




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AT THE 






SHEFFIELD 



ENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION, 



June ISth, 1876. 



BY GENERAL J. G. BARNARD 



SHEFFIELD 

1876. 



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HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 



BY GEN. JOHN G. BAKNAED, 

On this festival occasion you have called upon me for a sketch of the 
local history which prompts and makes appropriate this our own peculiar 
" Centennial" celebration. Although a native, ''to the manner born," I 
feel myself but slightly qualified for the task. The theme is not the 
growth, development, and straggles for existence of a nation ; it is of a 
simple country village, whose "fields" have ever been those of the hus- 
bandman, freely visited, indeed, by the dews of heaven, but unstained 
by the red drops of war ; whose harvests wave not 

" O'er roots set deep in battle-graves ; " 
whose modest halls have never resounded with the eloquence of statesmen, 
nor been the scenes where the nation's destiny was at stake. 

Not that we are without history ; that there is not, for ourselves at 
least, much worthy to be recorded. But he who would worthily make 
that record should be not only one horn amongst you, but reared in your 
midst ; to whom the color of your local life has been imparted ; to whom 
the history of each family has been associated with his own personal 
history ; and to whom the local events which must form his theme have 
become traditional. These are qualifications which he who addresses 
you, cannot claim to possess. Removed from this his " boyhood's home " 
almost in childhood, his youth and manhood have been spent in regions 
far away. His way of life, his pursuits, and his associations, have had 
little in them to remind him — much to cause forgetfulness — of the home 
where he was born. He is still, though nominally a citizen, almost a 
stranger among you. He must claim your indulgence, therefore, and 
beg you to accept the will to show his sympathy with you for ability to 
do better. 

For the approaching national anniversary, the great events of our 
national history form fitting themes. We must content ourselves with, 
others which, though humbler, are not uninstructive. 

"O Hist'ry, then hast done the world a wrong 
Immense and mournful ; on the Alpine heights 
Of human greatness thine enamoured gaze 
Has lingered, mindless, in that partial mood, 
Ot silent virtue in the vale below ; 
And robed thy themes of darkness with a veil 
Of bright attractions, as the thunder wraps 
His ruin oft, in clouds of glorious spell." 



We,<lwellers of the vale, literally as well as figuratively, must turn our 
eyes from our historic mountain summits, and fix them upon the " silent 
virtues " which have never been lacking in our valley home. Our own 
history, as a community, must be our special theme ; and to those who 
think of history as taking origin in the obscurity of an indefinite past, the 
fact that our origin as a town is dated but one half centmy previous to 
the event we commemorate, is indeed startling. One hundred and fifty 
vears ago the ground where we now stand was a wilderness. It was not 
till the Pilgrim Fathers had established themselves (1620 and 1622) in 
Plymouth, and on the shores of Massachusetts Bay j nor until " the fame 
of Connecticut river, a long, fresh, rich river, which had made a little 
Nilus of it in the expectation of the good people of Massachusetts Bay," 
had prompted an emigration and a new settlement upon this famous 
river; not until this settlement (1636) had been more than four-score 
years extending itself along the beautiful valley of the Connecticut, did 
the time ripen for an incursion upon the wilderness of Berkshire. 

" On the 30th day of January, 1722, one hundred and seventy-six 
inhabitants of Hampshire county * petitioned the General Court for two 
townships of land situated on the Housatonic river, at the southwestern 
corner of the Massachusetts patent. The petition was granted, and the 
townships ordered to contain seven miles square each. John Stoddard, 
Ebenezer Pomeroy, and Henry D wight, of Northampton ; Luke Hitchcock, 
of Springfield ; John Ashley, of Westfield ; and Samuel Porter, of Had-ley, 
were appointed a committee for dividing the tract, granting lots, admitting 
settlers, etc. The committee was instructed to reserve lands for the first 
minister, for the subsequent maintenance of the ordinances of the Gospel, 
and for the support of schools, and to demand of each man to whom they 
should make a grant, thirty shillings for every hundred acres, to be 
expended in extinguishing the Indian claims, paying expenses for laying 
out the lands, and in building meeting-houses in the townships. This 
committee met in the following March, at Springfield, and fifty-five 
settlers received grants, complying with the conditions attached to them. 
Measures were taken to purchase the land of the Indians, and on the 
25th of April, 1724, a deed was executed by them, conveying a tract 
bounded on the south by the divisional line between Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, west by the colony of New York, eastward to a line four 
miles from the Housatonic river, and in a general way so to extend, and 
north ' to the great mountain.' The Indians made certain reservations 
of planting and other land, and received, in consideration, the sum of 
06460 in money, three barrels of cider, and thirty quarts of rum. * * * 



* Hampshire county then included the entire valley of the Connecticut river lying 
in MaesachusettB 



This would seem to be the largest sum ever paid in Western Mas- 
sachusetts for the extinguishment of an Indian title. The deed thus 
given embraced the present towns of Sheffield, Egremont, Mount 
Washington, Great Barrington, Alford, a considerable part of Lee, and the 
larger part of Stockbridge and West Stockbridge. These two townships 
were known before the later division into towns, as 'the upper and lower 
Housatonic townships.' 

" The original settlers of Sheffield numbered about sixty. The first 
was Obadiah Noble, of Westfield, who spent one winter there entirely- 
alone, or with no other companions than the Indians. Returning to 
Westfield in the spring, he started in June to resume his residence upon 
the Housatonic, taking with him his daughter, only sixteen years of age. 
She went on horseback, taking her bed upon the horse with her, and 
lodged one night in the wilderness while making the passage. 

'* Though the Indian settlement in lower Housatonic was very small, 
it did not comprise all the natives within the territory granted. The 
tribe, however, was very much reduced in numbers, and Konkapot, the 
chief, of whom the land was bought, with eight or ten families, lived in 
that part of the territory of upper Housatonic, now covered by Stock- 
bridge. Tbe minority lived on the reservation in the lower township 
already alluded to, called by them ' Skatehook.' " (Holland's History of 
Western Massachusetts.) 

Such is the history of the settlement of the town, and of Southern 
Berkshire, on the Housatonic. We find that, of the two townships 
authorized by the General Court, in 1722, the lower one was incorporated 
in January, 1733, with the name of the more famous English town of 
Sheffield. Doubtless among the early settlers there must have been 
some for whom the name had suggestions other .than those so familiar of 
penknives and table cutlery. To some of our progenitors it must have 
had those of a home, or at least have been associated with tender mem- 
ories of the " fatherland." 

'' Within the territory of our neiv Sheffield, in accordance with the 
order of the Legislature, there had been reserved a lot for the first settled 
minister, a lot for the ministry, and a lot for schools. Obadiah Noble 
was, as we have noted, the first settler ; among those who soon followed 
him (mostly from Westfield) were the bearers of the following names : 
Austin, Ashley, Westover, Kellogg, Eggleston, Pell, Callender, Corben, 
Huggins, Smith, Ingersoll, Dewey and Root," many of which are still 
familiar and honored names among us. 

That of John Ashley has already appeared as that of one of the original 
grantees, or committee-men. Sheffield has had several prominent men of 
this name. John Ashley, son of the above, an ancestor of the speaker, 
graduated at Yale in 1730 ; settled in Sheffield as a lawyer ; subsequently 



a judge, colonel of militia, and magistrate, he died in Sheffield, 1802, 
aged ninety-three years. General John Ashley, his son, died 1799, aged 
sixty-four years, appointed by Governor Hancock, Major-General of State 
Militia, in 1780 ; he, too, was one of the largest land-holders of the town. 
It was he who commanded the small party which met and defeated the 
" Shays' rebels," in the first and only actual fight of that rebellion, near 
the western boundary of Sheffield. Col. William Ashley succeeded to 
the paternal estates of his father, and sustained the honored name which 
is now forever perpetuated in the cognomen, " Ashley Falls," by which 
the region is known where the family resided, and where their estates lay. 
Last in the male line, he died in Sheffield, 1849, aged seventy-six 
years. 

The original bounds of Sheffield embraced a large portion of what is 
now Great Barrington, and portions, also, of Egremont and New Marlboro. 
At the second town-meeting (the first having been held January 16), 
January 30, 1733, money was raised to build a meeting-house, forty-five 
feet long, and thirty-five feet wide (Appendix 1). The house was erected 
about three-quarters of a mile north of the present edifice and was 
occupied until 1760, when a new house was built, sixty feet by forty feet. 
This house is the one in which we are now assembled, having been re- 
moved, altered, and improved, in 1820, and again in 1856, renovated and 
embellished. Rev. Jonathan Hubbard was settled as the first pastor, 
October 22, 1735, and on the same day the first church was organized 
(Appendix 2). Mr. Hubbard was a native of Sunderland, and a graduate 
of Yale in 1724. He died July 6, 1765. Rev. John Keep, of Long- 
meadow, a graduate of Yale in 1769, succeeded him on June 10, 1772, 
and died while in office, September 3, 1785. Rev. Ephraim Judson was 
installed in his place in May, 1786. He was a native of Woodbury, 
Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale in 1763. He died in office, February 
23, 1813, and was succeeded on the following 13th of October by Rev. 
James Bradford, a native of Rowley, and a graduate of Dartmouth. Mr. 
Bradford remained the pastor of the church until May, 1852. Until 
1825, the town and Congregational Society were one and the same in 
action, but in that year the society became a separate organization. A 
Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1842. A second Methodist 
society was organized at Ashley Falls. In 1866 the Rev. Mr. Eccleston, 
then Rector of St. James's Episcopal Church, Great Barrington, under- 
took to organize a mission chapel to tliat church in our village. In this 
he received aid and encouragement from the late Mr. A. C. Russell, of 
Great Barrington, to whom is due the credit of being a founder of 
the Episcopal Church in Sheffield. In 1867 the church was incorpo- 
rated, and in 1873 admitted into the diocese of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church of Massachusetts. 



The specific act on the part of our town, which furnishes the motive 
for this, our own Sheffield Centennial celebration, is found thus recorded : 

'^ At a legal town-meeting of the inhabitants of the town of Sheffield, 
on Tuesday, the 18th day of June, 1776, it was put to vote, whether the 
inhabitants of the said town of Sheffield, should the Honorable Conti- 
nental Congress, in their wisdom, think prudent and for the interest 
and safety of the American Colonies to declare said Colonies inde- 
pendent of the kingdom of Great Britton, they, the inhabitants of said 
Sheffield, will solemnly engage, with their lives and fortunes, to support 
them in their measures. Voted in the affirmative; two dissenting 
only." 

The famous "Mecklenburg" (N. C.) Declaration of Independence, 
which resolved that " we, the people of Mecklenburg county, do hereby 
dissolve the political bands which have connected us with the mother 
country," though so explicit in form, does not appear to have been 
'' designed for publicity, other than such as might be obtained by its 
presentation to Congress." In fact a " dissolution of the bands which 
have connected us with the mother country," by a single county of a few 
thousand inhabitants, would be preposterous. The Mecklenburg decla- 
ration has no claim to be regarded as anything more decisive or more 
patriotic than were the Sheffield resolutions ; the intended and the sole 
effect of the one and the other being to encourage the General Congress 
with assurance of support, should it, in its wisdom, take the decisive step 
towards which, as all patriots and thoughtful men saw, the march of 
events plainly tended. I know not whether any other communities 
of the thirteen colonies acted likewise ; but we claim that whatever just 
meed of applause may be conceded to the patriots of Mecklenburg 
county. North Carolina, should be conceded equally to the patriots of 
Sheffield, Massachusetts. 

Though necessarily introduced as the especial theme of this paper, this 
action of the town of Sheffield was by no means an isolated one. Even 
more remarkable is the action (preamble and resolutions) of January 12, 
1773, antecedent by more than two years to the Mecklenburg Decla- 
ration, and in the first and second resolutions, viz. : — 

" Resolved, that mankind, in a state of nature, are equal, free, and 
independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of their lives, their liberty and property. 

"Resolved, that the great end of political society is to secure in a 
more effectual manner those rights and privileges wherewith God and 
Nature have made us free " — anticipating the famed enunciation of 
" truths," held to be " self-evident," of the Declaration of Independence. 
Too lengthy to be read here, the record is copied in an appendix to this 
paper (Appendix 3). The list of the names of the committee-men who 



drafted, the preamble and resolutions, will furnisli a clue, perhaps, to their 
remarkable character. 

Theodore Sedgwick, then a lawyer in Sheffield, represented the town 
several years in the Massachusetts Legislature ; was a member of the 
Continental Congress, 1785-86 ; member of the State Convention for 
ratification of the Federal Constitution, 1788 ; member of Congress (at 
one time Speaker), and a Senator under that Constitution ; subsequently 
Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts till his death, in 1813. 
It was he who, first as a lawyer, then as a judge, settled forever the 
question of slavery in Massachusetts. Chairman of a committee — as we 
find him to be not only on this, but on subsequent occasions — of an 
obscure country town, he was afterwards the intimate associate of Hamil- 
ton, Jay, Rutledge, and other prominent men of our early history. 

Major John Fellows, an ancestor of the speaker, had served in the 
French war, and, as brigadier-general, served afterwards in the Revolu- 
tion, on Long Island, at White Plains, and in the battle of Stillwater. 
" Col. Ashley " has already been alluded to as " General John Ashley." 
Stephen Dewey, Dr. Lemuel Barnard, Dr. Silas Kellogg, and others of 
the names, are those of men of known intellectual capacity. 

By the resolution of June 18, 1776, we, in advance, pledged, virtually, 
" our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor," to the support of the 
great act of July 4, 1776. Nor did we fail to fulfil this anticipatory 
pledge. On June 30, 1777, the first town-meeting was called in the 
name of the government and people of Massachusetts Bay. " Dr. Lemuel 
Barnard was chosen moderator ; Theodore Sedgwick, Richard Jacob, and 
Col. Aaron Root, were chosen a committee to give instructions to the 
representatives (in the General Court) relative to the money raised for 
the soldiers that turn out or are drafted to go in an allarm " (sic). It was 
voted that '^ each non-commissioned officer and private who shall march 
by reason of allarm until the — day of October, shall receive two shillings 
per day while on the march, and one shilling per day while in camp, in 
addition to the present Continental and Government pay." 

Tlie following minute appears of proceedings at a meeting on January 
9, 1778, Theodore Sedgwick moderator : — ^^ To William Bacon, Esq., 
one of the representatives for the towns which are to attend the present 
sessions of the Great and General Court, this town, impressed with a 
sence {sic) of the necessity of an immediate ratification of the articles of 
confederation and perpetual union, published by order of the Honorable 
the Congress, highly approving the wisdom of these articles, instruct you 
to use your influence, that the same be approved in the House of Repre- 
sentatives of this State." 

March 17, 1778, we find the minute of a vote to raise "the sum of 
five hundred pounds, in money, to get a town stock of powder, lead, and 



9 

flints." It was also voted to " supply the souldiers in the Continental 
service belonging to this town with cloathing during the present year; 
also, that the committee chosen to provide for the families of those 
souldiers gone into the Continental service, be directed to make such 
provision for their cattle as they think necessary." And again, May 16, 
1778, '' voted that there be allowed tlie sum of thirty pounds to each 
Continental souldier that shall be raised in this town, agreeable to the 
resolve of the General Court of April 20th ; " and December 3, 1778, " voted 
to raise the sum of five hundred pounds, to provide for the families of 
this town in the Continental army " [sic). 

November 25, 1779, it was voted, after hearing a report from a cona- 
niittee of which Theodore Sedgwick was chairman, that " two thousand 
and four hundred pounds is equivalent to one hundred pounds." (This 
was in reference to fixing, in depreciated currency, the salary of their 
pastor. Rev. John Keep.) 

January 16, 1780, it was " voted to choose a committee to hire the cota 
(sic) of men required by the General Court "***<' to give those who 
shall go into the Continental service for six months (in addition to the 
State's pay), forty shillings per month, in silver, or Continental money 
equivalent" * * * "To raise three hundred pounds silver money.'" 
From these items we infer that Sheffield's "cota" of men that year 
was 150, 

October 13, 1780, it was "voted to raise the sum of three hundred 
and fifty pounds, new emission, to purchase beef for the army," etc., etc. 
* * * " To raise the sum of one hundred and forty pounds, to procure 
cloathing for the souldiers in the Continental army," etc. 

The records all through the war are filled with such votes. Men 
were only raised for three or six months, and were clotjied by the town — 
facts illustrative of the difiiculties which our generals in the field had to 
encounter. 

In 1780, the first town-meeting was called " in the name of the people 
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay ; " in the succeeding year, and 
subsequently, the time-honored word, " Bay," disappears, and the style 
becomes the " Commonwealth of Massachusetts" (Appendix 4). 

The foregoing brief notes must suffice to show how prompt, through- 
out the Revolutionary struggle, the town of Sheffield was to meet every 
patriotic call; how faithful the pledge — the act which we this day 
celebrate — was fulfilled, "to support the Continental Congress in a 
Declaration of Independence" (Appendix 5). 

Passing along these records, we find, as the war draws to a close 
(practically decided by the surrender at Yorktown, October, 17S1-, though 
the Treaty of Peace was not signed till September, 1783), minutes of 
quite another character, grave and ominous — as we can now understand 



10 

them k> have been — as are the atmospheric phenomena which prelude the 

earthquake. On the 1st of April, 1782, it was 

"Kesolved, that in a Commonwealth to suspend the laws, and to stop the courts of 
justice, is of most fatal tendency to that County and ought by all means to be discoun- 
tenanced by every one who wishes to support the liberties and happiness of the 
people. 

" 2dly, Resolved, that in the oppinion (sic) of the town, the Justice of the Peace ought 
not to be allowed any fee for attending the Court of General Sessions of the Peace. 

"3dly, Eesolved, that the Governsr's salai-y, as by law established, is, in the opinion 
of this town, excessive. 

" 4thly, Eesolved, that in the opinion of this town, it is in the power of the Legislature 
of the Commonwealth to devise and establish a less expensive and more speedy 
method of collecting debts, particularly by enlarging the jurisdiction of justices, and 
enabling them to take acknowledgment of debts without process, and issue execution 
thereon under such restrictions and provisions as may appear necessary. 

"5thly, Resolved, that the price by law established is excessive, and that no travel 
nor attendance ought to be taxed on bills of cost more than is actually performed. 

" 6thly, Resolved, that in the opinion of the town, good pork, beef, and wheat, should be 
a tendure (sic) in satisfaction of executions, in like maimer as is provided in case of 
extending executions on real estate. 

"7th]y, Eesolved, that Constables ought to be impowered to serve all writs and pro- 
cesses within their respective towns. " 

The foregoing resolutions were transmitted with the following petition : 

"To the Honorable, the Senate and the House of Representatives of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

" The petition of the inhabitants of the town of Sheffield, in town-meet- 
ing assembled, humbly shows, 

" That the town, on mature and thorough deliberation and fexamination, 
have passed the several votes contained in the annexed copy ; we are 
sensible that your honours must, as a principle object, regard the defence of 
this and the other states in union ; we wish not to direct your attention 
there/ore (from ?) a single moment, but while your patriotic exertions are 
pointed to a matter of such great importance we hope it may not be 
thought either impertinent or unreasonable to call the attention of your 
honours to the Internal Police of the Commonwealth ; we can and do most 
solemnly assure your honours that we have a just detestation of all 
practices which have a tendency to unsettle the Government, and intro- 
duce anarchy and confusion in its stead, as necessarily and directly 
tending to destroy the liberties of the citizen, and as aiding the most 
barbarous and bloody enemies of these states ; at the same time, we beg 
permission to say that we ardently wish the Government as little burden- 
some and expensive as is consistent with the support and dignity thereof; 
accordingly, by these views, with the most submissive deference, we pray 
your Honours to take into your consideration the resolves and votes afore- 
said, and act therein as to you in your wisdom shall appear just and 
reasonable, and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray." 



11 

Keal snflfbiings, and, to some extent, real grievances, the nature of wMob 
is clearly indicated in the above-cited resolutions, were thus early 
finding voice. 

It will not be my province to dilate upon that peculiar phase of our 
history which the ensuing years of 1783-4-5-6-7, developed. The 
" Shays' Rebellion" is the subject of a chapter of Holland's " History of 
Western Massachusetts," and one of om* most prominent townsmen, the 
Rev. Mason Noble, has recited to you the sad tale, as it relates more espe- 
cially to Berkshire county and to Sheffield. I must content myself with 
quoting his eloquent epitome of its causes : — 

" During the war of the Revolution the thirteen States had agreed upon 
articles of confederation, but they conferred little power on Congress. 
It could recommend, but could not enforce that which it recommended. 
It could only advise action, leaving the States to do as they pleased. 
Bitter jealousy existed between the several States, both with regard to each 
other, and to the general good. A heavy debt had been incurred by 
the war. Congress had no money, and could not levy taxes. It advised 
the States to pay, but some of them were too jealous of Congress to heed 
its recommendations. Massachusetts, however, true to her honorable record 
from first to last, assumed her own share of the national obligation of 
the States which, though not yet a nation, had together undertaken to 
secure independence of all from the English dominion. 

" At the same time the land was in a terrible condition. Commerce had 
been utterly destroyed by the war. Trade, manufactures, and agriculture 
had been neglected. War had been the main business of the country 
for eight years. Many persons lost their entire fortunes. Villages, towns, 
and cities had been burned ; ships had been lost ; crops had been desti'oyed • 
money was worth almost nothing, still it was scarce and hard to get. 
A mighty load of debt rested on the nation, states, towns, and individuals, 
and, taking the land through, few were ready to do anything for the 
general relief. A shock was needed to wake the land to energetic life, 
and that shock came in the shape of what is known in history as ' Shays 
Rebellion.' " 

Berkshire, as we know, was the most recently settled county of 
Massachusetts, and the evils thus depicted bore heavily upon her. Yet, 
though there were numerous active cooperators in the county, it was around 
Northampton, Springfield, and Worcester, chiefly, that the rebelliou& 
gatherings were found, aimed mainly at preventing the sessions and 
action of the courts. 

In Sheffield, you are aware, was the ^' battlefield " of the only actual 
fight, and, if we except the loss of life accompanying the attempt made by 
Shays on the arsenal at Springfield, the only scene of bloodshed. The 
" only instance " (according to Holland) " in which a considerable body 



12 

of rei)els exhibited the slightest courage ; " a courage, however, which 
he is malicious enough to attribute to " the quantity of liquor they had 
stolen and drank during the day." 

The establishment of the constitution of the United States, and the 
remodelling of our State government, tended to restore confidence and 
quiet. The return of malcontents to habits of industry, the natural 
increase of population and the development of our physical resources, 
gradually obliterated all traces of these disorders. With peace, prosperity 
resumed its reign ; our State and our county, rapidly increasing in popula- 
tion and in wealth, have been, conspicuously, the scenes of those busy 
activities in commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and in engineering 
works auxiliary thereto, which have been, during the latter half of the 
<;entury, so characteristic of our country. 

We need not dwell on the episode of our national history, the war of 
1812, — a war which found little favor in New England, and in which our 
town seems to have had no further part than in sending its quota of 
militia to Boston, in 1S14. An invasion of the coast was apprehended ; 
but forty days of camp life at Dorchester, a review by the governor on 
Boston Common, and, on the whole, an ''extremely pleasant time" for our 
militiamen, made up the events of this so-called " Grovernor Strong's war." 

It is the sentiment of the country that this Centennial of our national 
existence should be especially a new era of restored fellowship and 
brotherly feeling with those of our countrymen with whom we were, in its 
penultimate decade, in so deadly a struggle. Long years myself a 
resident among those with whom we were subsequently to join battle, the 
"better half" of my feelings has been with some of those who live south 
•of Mason and Dixon's line, and I am little disposed to recall, on this 
occasion, events of the war. 

But I cannot omit some notice of the historic relations of my native 
town to this war. Her records show with how much patriotism and earnest- 
ness she demeaned herself. 

" 1861, May 4, Oliver Peck, moderator, W. B. Saxton,town clerk (E. E. 
Callender, Abner Roys, and Henry Burtch, were selectmen throughout 
the war), voted that the moderator and town clerk petition the governor, 
in behalf of the town, to immediately assemble the legislature. On 
motion of E. F. Ensign, a resolution passed at a legal meeting of the 
inhabitants of the town of Sheffield, held on the 18th of June, 1776, was 
read, and ordered to be put on file." This, the resolution we this day 
commemorate, was thus recalled and recorded anew, — an example of the 
patriotism of our fathers ; an incentive to our own, in this new crisis of 
our country's fate. A committee (Graham A. Root, E. F. Ensign, 
■Zacheus Candee, Archibald Taft, and Leonard Tuttle) were chosen, to 
report a series of resolutions." They reported, 1st, $2,000 to be raised to 



13 

equip volunteers from ttis town ; 2d, each volunteer to be paid $9 per 
month by the town ; 3d, families of soldiers to receive " comfortable 
assistance;" 4th, Gr. A. Root, S. H. Bushnell, L. Tuttle, T. B. Strong and 
H. D. Train, to be a committee, with full powers to expend the money ; 
5th, said committee may boiTow not exceeding $4,000 on the credit of the 
town ; 6th, the committee to serve without pay ; 7th, the town-treasurer 
shall pay all orders of said committee; 8th, the committee were *' to pro- 
ceed immediately to form a militia company." The resolutions were 
adopted ivith one dissenting vote. 

1862, July 22, voted a bounty to each volunteer of $125. A commit- 
tee of fourteen, " to solicit enlistments, and subscriptions of money to be 
given volunteers." 

August 23, voted a bounty of $100 to each nine months' volunteer. 

November 4, $2,000 for aid to soldiers' families. 1864, April 4, a bounty 
of $150, and to raise $3,000 for this purpose. December 13, raised 
$4,000. 

The town carried the spirit, shown in the resolutions adopted at the 
beginning of the war, through the entire struggle, and, at its close, passed 
a vote of thanks to the selectmen, who declined a reelection, for their 
services in procuring recruits. 

Sheffield furnished 269 men for the military service — a surplus of eight 
over all demands. Four were commissioned officers. The whole amount 
of money raised for war purposes, during the live years, was $30,033 68, 
besides the " State aid " to the families of volunteers, which was after- 
wards reimbursed by the Commonwealth, and which was, in 1861, 
$80 36: 1862; $1,867 56; 1863, $4,859 71; 1864, $4,300; 1865, 
$3,400. Total amount, $14,507 63. Total raised, $44,541 31. 

No town in the State failed to raise its full quota of men, and only two 
in our county failed to raise more than their quota ; but no town can 
claim to have been more prompt, energetic, and liberal, than Sheffield. 

I have thus hastily sketched our origin, growth and history ; but how 
unsatisfactory must necessarily be a mere historical sketch ! How little 
can we realize who and what they were — onr fathers, indeed — who lived, 
in 1776, where we now live ! The word ^'father" carries us back to the 
time when we were children, and when we looked up into parental eyes 
with a tenderness and reverence with which it is not in us to regard other 
mortal being. Were those who lived here — and, save through those words 
and deeds we find record of, so utterly unknown to us — indeed our " fathers 
after the flesh " ? Does the brief century of years which lays in the dust 
all who have gone before us, and who have hegoUen us, thus dissolve all 
ties ? Are we indeed children of the dead, as we are ourselves heirs to 
death ? To Him, the " God of our fathers," who proclaims Himself not 
the God of the dead but of the living, we must appeal for answer ! 



14 

Bu^, leaving aside these grave questions, how inexpressibly interesting 
it would be if, as we chance to pass one of the few remaining quaint old- 
time houses, destitute in front of porch and piazza, sloping back with its 
long rearward roof from two stories down to one ; or, perchance, one of 
the double-fronted old brick houses, with the numerals of a long-past year 
curiously worked into its front walls, we might enter and find there their 
vanished dwellers as tliey were ! 

Were they, indeed, those grim old " Puritans," of whom we have heard 
so much ; and who, though they landed on " Plymouth Rock," and 

" Shook the depths of the forest gloom with hymns of lofty cheer," 

do not, altogether, make us feel as if we should be at ease in their 
company? Our nari'ative shows them to have been real live men — 
Tceenly alive to the sense of injustices and oppressions, — self-saciificing in 
their efforts to remove them, and actively benevolent in behalf of those 
who were in need of succor. But, as if we needed a little of our own 
*' human nature," to assure us that they were of our flesh and blood, the 
story of a " Shays' Rebellion," bad as it is, comes in aptly, if not 
agreeably. 

Holland tells us, too, that, " in social life, ardent spirits played an 
important part. Respectable traders dealt out the article to very miserable 
topers; respectable men assembled, even on Sunday evenings, in the 
parlor of the village tavern, to drink flip and smoke their pipes ; respect- 
able young men went forth in sleighing parties, stopping at every tavern 
for their flip, and boys drank flip b}^ the hour, in bar-rooms of respectable 
members of the Church. Then, Sunday night was the night for play 
among the children, Saturday night being observed as holy time. They 
pursued their noisy games in the street, or assembled in neighboring 
houses to play blindman's buff and tell stories." 

That there was a long period in our early history during which the 
evils of the free use of '' ardent spirits " had not been adequately 
recognized, all of us whose memories extend back fifty years, can vouch. 
The use of ardent spirits was doubtless then, as it is now, quite too 
common, and Holland is but truthful when he says, '' Respectable traders 
dealt out the article to very miserable topers ;" but I doubt whether there 
was ever a time when " boys drank flip by the hour," in bar-rooms of 
respectable innkeepers, whether members of the Church or not. Fifty 
years ago it was rather unusual to find an innkeeper to be a " member 
of the Church ; " not because they were not " respectable," but because 
of the peculiar attributes of church-membership in New England. 

It was in the early years of the century that " temperance societies " 
first originated. It is, indeed, only within that brief period that men 
have become fully conscious of the fearful evils which accompany the 



15 

use of ardent spirits ; nowhere were the evils earlier recognized than in 
New England. The earliest "temperance society " originated (1808) in 
a region bordering on our own (Saratoga County, N. Y.). Five years 
later (1813) the Massachusetts Society for the suppression of intemperance 
was formed. Affiliated societies were rapidly organized throughout the 
State, and travelling preachers, or lecturers, went forth with the theme on 
their lips. They are many among tis who can remember the first appear- 
ance of these excellent men, and the telling effect of their appeals ; one 
of the most common of which was the computation of the number of ships 
which could be floated in the liquor annually drank. The speaker well 
recollects that owe "respectable trader" went his way homeward, after 
such an appeal, vowing to stave the heads of his " wine " casks, and let 
his tributary rill flow to mother earth, rather than to that imaginary lake 
w^hich floated the navies of the world, — that too real maelstrom in which 
were being engulfed the noblest ventures of our life's enterprise, the 
fairest promise of our New-England homes. The speaker is sorry to 
add that he has not reason to believe this virtuous resolution was carried 
into effect; he has rather reason to fear that it served but to form 
another tessera of pavement for that place where "good intentions" are 
said to be trampled under foot (Appendix 6). 

Although that extreme rigidity of Sabbath observance, maintained 
by penal enactments, of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay did not obtain 
in the latest Massachusetts settlement, Berkshire, yet those of us whose 
memories extend back to the mediaeval period of the past century, will 
recollect the extreme strictness of observance alluded to by Holland. 

The commandment given to the children of Israel was absolute, and it 
was addressed to a people for whom its absolute observance was practi- 
cable. Such an observance is simply impracticable among the nations 
of the earth, as human relations and avocations are now constituted ; but 
the Almighty never commanded an impracticable thing, nor laid an 
absolute injunction upon man that he, his creature, should define to it 
exceptions. 

" When will the Sabbath be over ?" was, if not on our lips, the yearn- 
ing thought, as Sunday's sun went down, of many a boyish heart fifty 
years ago ; not that, with the mercenary Jews, " we may sell wheat ; " 
not that we may resume our work ; but that we boys, released from 
unnatural restriction, may once more, at least, play. 

On such an occasion as this, personal reminiscences of early days might 
be deemed appropriate ; but the most far-reaching memory among us 
extends little beyond the mid-period of the century just ended, and there 
are not many to whom the " brick school-house " (many years since 
demolished), with its quaint curb-roof, — nor its successive teachers, are 
familiar reminiscences. One of these, a venerable lady, for whom there 



16 

are ^et many to " arise up and call her blessed," is still living, though 
not among us. Another, a somewhat famous pedagogue, came here iu 
the decline of his powers, physical and mental, but, nevertheless, many of 
Sheffield's since-noted men (among whom my friends. Judge Bradford 
and Mr. Ensign Kellogg, now of Pittsfield) were, as was the speaker, 
his pupils, deriving profit from his teaching. 

There are, perhaps, a few present who recollect this " meeting-house," 
as it stood in the middle of the street, and its removal and remodelling 
(1820) to its present site and form. But many here present will recollect 
the commanding form of the last of our sole Congregational pastors, the 
Rev. James Bradford, whose flock comprised all the inhabitants (for, until 
1825, the town and the Congregational society were one and the same), 
— one of the last of that remarkable race of New-England divines who 
were so influential in moulding, so potent in maintaining, our peculiar 
New-England institutions. " Eequiescant in pace,^ be our invocation ; 
'' Well done, good and faithful servants," be theu' greeting from the Master 
whom, according to then- light and might, they so faithfully served. 

In one respect, Sheffield is unlike those towns of our State and country 
which are most typical of the growth of the nation. Quite destitute of 
water-power — nearly the onlv portion of the Housatonic valley which is 
thus destitute — and, until the opening of the Housatonic railroad (1840), 
almost cut oft" from communication with the great cities — the social and 
commercial centres — Sheffield has remained an eddy in the sweeping 
current of what we call our national progress. We have had but small 
addition from without to our population. A community of farmers we 
were ; a community of farmers we remain. Since the opening of rail- 
road communications, the upper towns of the Housatonic valley have 
been much resorted to, by inhabitants of New York and Boston, for 
summer residence and for sites of country seats, while our own town has 
been passed by, mainly because the broad plain, in the midst of which 
is our village, presents not, contiguous to the population, those view- 
commanding sites which are found hard by the more northern towns of 
the Berkshire valley. With the highest peak of the Taconic range, the 
Dome, or '^ High Peak '' of our boyhood — improperly called " Mount 
Everett " on recent maps, in consequence of an unauthorized and uncalled- 
for innovation of the late Professor Hitchcock — overlooking us on the west ; 
the picturesque Hoosacs bordering our valley on the east ; the sinuous 
silvery thread of the Housatonic laid along the intervening breadth of 
green meadows, the broad expanse of which is broken by numerous 
beautiful wooded monticles j with our excursions to the mountains, to 
" Bash-a-pish," to the " Twin Lakes," to the " Pool," and numerous 
others, we yield not the palm of scenic beauty to our rivals, and we 
envy not the encroachments of city life. Without wealth ourselves, we 



17 

have not yearly displayed beiVtre us the superfluities nor the pretensions 
of those who do have it. 

But we must not wholly congratulate ourselves on our isolation. The 
great cities have not indeed added to us 5 alas ! they have taken from us. 
There was a time — and the speaker recollects it — when such a country 
existence was an entity ; something complete and self-sufficing. Never 
a manufacturing place (in the modern sense), there was a time when 
nearly all our oivn manufactories were here. We made our own clothes, 
our own carriages, built our own houses, made our own silverware ; and 
repaired, at least, for ourselves, our clocks and watches. 

These arts, exerted though they were on a humble scale, have nearly 
all fled. Who in our country towns can make a hat, or a man's gar- 
ment of any kind, or a horse-shoe, or a harness, when the great manufac- 
tories, with concentrated " capital " and steam-driven " machinery," make 
them "■m gross" for whole populations? 

With our self-sufficedness and small mechanical avocations has gone, 
too, in no inconsiderable degree, our intellectual life. Before the great 
cities and manufacturing centres had absorbed all the energies of the 
people, each isolated township was a centre of intellectual life to 
itself. The driving away of energy and intellect to the cities, or to the 
broader fields of enterprise in the West, is by no means peculiar to 
Sheffield; but the effect has been more telling, since, for us, there have 
been few compensating influences. Massachusetts, more than any other 
State, perhaps, has devoted herself to the perfecting of education ; yet it 
may well be doubted whether any of the '* high schools " of this region sur- 
pass such as those of Mr. Curtis, in Stockbridge, or of Levi Gleason, in 
Lenox and Sheffield, of fifty years ago. 

Before the days of railroads, the great turnpike route fi'om Albany to 
Hartford lay through Sheffield, midway between those cities. Who is 
there whose memory reaches to those early years of the century, who 
does not recollect the daily passage of the stage-coaches ? With us boys 
it was the great event of the day ; the qualities of the various " teams " 
were warmly discussed ; their " drivers " were among our heroes. Nor 
was it a matter of less interest to our grown population. Sheffield was 
the midday stopping-place in summer, the hostelry for night in the winter. 

It is related of the celebrated French author, Chateaubriand, that, 
when in this country, he travelled by this route through Sheffield, and 
passed the night at the tavern, still, in somewhat altered form, standing. 
Before retiring, he took a place by the fireside, and casually entered into 
conversation with one who appeared to be a villager. Each soon 
discovered the other to be something uKjre than an ordinary villager or 
an ordinary traveller. The conversation increased in interest — the legend 
makes it to have been maiJiematical ! — became absorbing, and not till the 



18 

gray light of dawn stole in upon them, did either feel conscious that an 
entire night had been passed in this intellectual intercourse, Chateau- 
briand's interlocutor was Paul Dewey, uncle to our eminent and venerable 
townsman. Dr. Orville Dewey. I am sorry to say that I cannot verify, 
from Chateaubriand's published journals, that he ever passed over this 
Hartford and Albany route (though he did go to Albany) ; but the tale 
is of the class, " se non e vero e hen trovato : if not true, it is trutJdiJce. 

If, from these purely local views with which I have occupied your 
attention, we extend our vision over the nation of which we are a diminu- 
tive member, we should doubtless find, in its successive and noble 
struggles for national existence, and in the rapid strides of progress by 
which it has now taken rank among the foremost nations of the earth, 
great cause for self-congratulation. 

The thirteen original colonies, whose narrow skirt of settlement barely 
fringed the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts Bay to the Savannah 
river, and whose population numbered less than four millions, have been 
the nursing mothers of thirty-eight States, whose territorial expanse 
reaches, without break of continuity, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; 
from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Over this immense area a 
reticulation of seventy thousand miles of railways has been cast, auxiliary 
to which our great rivers have been spanned by bridge-structures, the 
very conception of which was not in the minds of men one hundred years 
ago ; and even our own Hoosacs have, by cyclopean labor, been pierced 
to make a way for the " iron horse." The waters of the Atlantic have 
been united to those of the great lakes, and those again to the Mississippi. 
Thus have we put a double " girdle" of iron and of water around our 
by no means little " world," known as the United States of America — 
nay, a treble one ; and though the last be but a diminutive wire, yet, 
like the nerve-system of the human body, it is the medium through which 
flashes intelligence, and which brings all parts of the system into harmoni- 
ous action. 

Regarded as the results of a century's growth of the nation, they are 
indeed marvellous. But yet, there is '' a more excellent way " in which 
we may not have achieved so marked a progress, or in which, if marked 
at all, it may be feared our progress has been re-gressive. 

"jUl fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay." 

It is by the greatness of our men that the true greatness of our nation 
must be judged — nay, by which even its material greatness will ulti- 
mately be determined. An eloquent writer * has well said : " In the 
perplexities of nations, in their struggles for existence, their impotence 



* Ruskin,/' Modern Painters." 



19 

or even their disorganization, they have higher hopes and nobler pas- 
sions; out of suffering comes the serioiis mind; out of salvation, the 
grateful heart ; out of endurance, fortitude ; out of deliverance, faith. 
But when they have done away with violent and external som'ces of 
suffering, worse evils seem to arise out of their rest, — evils that vex less 
and mortify more ; that suck the blood, though they do not shed it, and 
ossify the heart, though they do not torture it." 

Dming the hundred years which have elapsed, our nation has passed 
through all these ordeals. " Endurance " has developed oiu- " fortitude ; " 
" sufiering," the " serious mind ; " and " salvation," the " grateful heart." 
Shall the doing away with violent and external sources of suffering 
develop, too, with us, those " worse evils " hinted at ? Shall external 
prosperity, with its attendant love of luxury and ease, " suck the blood " 
of our purer aflections, and " ossify " our hearts, that they no longer throb 
with noble and manly impulses? 

The century which we inaugurate will be tasked with far other prob- 
lems than those which tried the past one. And of those purely political, 
the most important will be that of maintaining good government — which 
implies the distraining of political corruption. No more difficult problem 
has fallen upon human beings, as civil communities enlarged themselves 
from mere tribes to mighty nations, than that of government. We 
Americans have grown up in — imbibed with our mother's milk, I might 
say — the belief that republicanism is the most perfect (as, in application 
to a great nation, it is the latest) phase of human government. A mon- 
archy, like yonder elm, to be stable and beneficent, must send its roots 
deep ; must be grappled, in the soil where it stands, by multitudinous 
tendrils of personal reverence, the growth of a traditionary past. We, 
as a people, had no traditions, and no great families to members of 
which the people of these thirteen colonies could concede preeminence. A 
republic was not only congenial to the predilections and habits of mind of 
the colonists, but the sole form of government practicable for them. 
Indeed it may be said that, everywhere, men are outgrowing their tradi- 
tions, and the habits of personal reverence, which sustain monarchies ; and 
that a new monarchy can hardly originate again — at least, among highly 
civilized peoples.* 

The perfecting of the republican form of government is, tJierefore, the 
great desideratum, not only for us, but for civilized mankind. No 
greater work of purely human political wisdom was ever produced, than 
the " Constitution of the United States." Yet it may safely be affirmed 



* A new organization or distribution, merely, by which a new monarchy is made 
(e. g., Belgium) out of older ones, with recoui'se to existing reigning families, does not 
come in the category of " new monarchies " alluded to. 



20 

that, gould the vision of its makers have been extended to the present 
day, the work would have taken, in some respects, a different form. 
It is, however, to be borne in mind that, in owe important feature, tlie Con- 
stitution Jias ever been a dead letter. I allude to that which prescribes 
the manner of electing the President of the United States. It was not 
intended (and, to me, that is one of the indubitable proofs of the wisdom 
of its framers) that the chief magistrate should be elected directly by the 
people. It was for a certain number of '^ electors," appointed by the 
States (no senator or representative, or person holding any office of trust 
or profit; under the United States, being eligible), '' in such a manner as the 
legislatures thereof may direct," to make the choice. Nay, more ; instead 
of reducing to insignificancy the Vice-Presidency of the United States, 
the '^ electors" were to simply vote for " two persons." When these votes 
shall be counted " in the presence of the Senate," '' the person having 
the greatest number of votes shall be the President ; " the one having 
next to the greatest number, " Vice-President." 

Nor does the " amendment " (whatever may have been in the minds 
of its framers), which specifies that the electors shall vote specifically for 
"President" and "Vice-President," affect the fundamental idea. To the 
electors it was given to choose of their own volition and wisdom, for 
these United States, the Chief Magistrate. 

I care not to discuss the practicability of this method, remarking only 
that it leaves no place for the party " conventions " which elfect, practi- 
cally, for. each party, a choice beforehand, and that, this idea carried 
into effect, the demoralizing notions of " spoils " and of " victors " would 
have been unknown. The inauguration of President would not have been 
the inauguration of a new quadrennial period of contest. Our "civil 
service " would not have become, as it now is, a part of the " spoils " of a 
political " victory." 

We may not be able to restore that which, indeed, we never had : the 
constitutional method of election. What we may do, and what we should 
do, is to banish from politics the erroneous notions through which " rota- 
tion in office " is regarded as excellent and desirable in itself, and which 
makes " office " the prize of party predominance. We may place our 
civil service beyond the reach of this kind of spoliation, and free our 
country from the quadi-ennial anarchy of a Presidential election, while 
removing temptations to abuse of power, by proscribing, absolutely, a 
" second terra." 

We have assembled on this occasion especially for commemoration of 
om- prospective adhesion to a " Declaration of Independence," to be 
made by the General Congress of the Colonies. In that declaration (as 
it soon after took form) the " king of Great Britain" was charged, among 
other things, with " taxing us without our consent," and with having 



21 

" refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good." 

Now, one hundred years later, we have no " king of Great Britain " to 
arraign ; but, when mooted questions, the settlement of which is vital to 
the public interest, are shunned by the political parties in power, and 
bandied to and fro, lest there should be a loss of party prestige, have we 
no like grievance ? Taxes, indeed, cannot be imposed without " our 
consent," given through legislative bodies chosen by ourselves ; or, at 
least, by a majority of all who, under a system of universal suffrage, have 
a right to vote ; but I will leave it to your own conclusions whether this, 
our palladium from taxation " without our consent," has proved itself such. 

Far as I am from being an optimist, I would not, on such an occasion 
as this, be a Cassandra. The calamities which Cassandra predicted, befell 
her people, because her vaticinations were disregarded. If the evils 
which portend at the close of the first century of our national existence, 
do not burst upon us in the next, it will be because, now deliberately 
recognized, they shall effectually be guarded against. And if our coun- 
try shall continue its unparalleled course of prosperity and greatness, it 
will be because a free people rises to the dignity of that "perfect 
freedom." which for man is only found in subjection, — subjection to divine 
law — subjection to human law ; recognizing that the boasted prerogative 
of ' ' choosing our own rulers " is an imaginary benefit, unless it shall 
secure our being wisely ruled. 

My task is finished. May that glorious orb, source of light, emblem 
of life, which shall soon sink below the mountain-ribbed horizon of our 
beautiful valley, amid, perhaps, portentous clouds, yet not wholly without 
"good omen," rise with the morrow's dawn upon another century, a 
" sun of righteousness with healing in his wings," shedding rays of 
beneficence upon the homes of a truly " free " people ! 

" Righteousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a reproach 
to ant people." 



22 



APPENDIX 

TO 

GEN. BARNARITS HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 

[For the laborious examination of the records of the town of Sheffield, and the 
transcription therefrom of the portions read in his address, the writer is indebted to 
the gentleman to whose exertions the undertaking and successful accomplishment of 
the " Sheffield Centennial Celebration " was in so great a degree due — the Kev. 
Mason Noble.] 

(1.) It may be that some part of tlie first church building is yet in exist, 
ence, and could be identified. I have been able to trace its later history 
only as follows : 

Mar. 14, 1764. "Ezra Fellows Ezra Hickock and Richard Jacobs 
" were Chosen a Committee to dispose of the old meeting house for the 
" Towns best advantage." They appear to have sold the building to 
Amos Kellogg, who seems to have been unwilling, or unable, to pay 
the price demanded, for we find these other items of record : — 

Mar. 12, 1765 — " voted to Reduce Amos Kelloggs obligation for the old 
" meeting house Down to Twenty five pounds. 

Oct. 12, 1876 — "voted to Reduce Amos Kelloggs obligation or the 
"Judgment obtained against S"^ Kellogg at the Last Inferior Court of 
" Common pleas Down to fifteen pounds " — Amos Kellogg died in 1770. 
Unless destroyed by fire, probably the timbers of the old church still exist 
in the frame of some dwelling-house or bam. [M. N., Jr.] 

(2.) This date, Oct. 22, 1735, is rather that of the recognition of the 
church, than of its organisation. On that day the first pastor was 
ordained by a council — " present the Rev*^ Ministers and Messengers," 
viz. : 

" Timothy Cohens of Litchfield, Deac. Nath^ Belden. 

" Samuel Hopkins of Springfield. 

" Peter Reynolds of Enfield, Capt. Joseph Sexton. 

" Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, Deac. Samuel Alen. 

" William Rand of Sunderland, Deac. Isaac Hubbai'd." 

This was, doubtless, the occasion of the first visit of Samuel Hopkins 
and Jonathan Edwards to Berkshire. The above extract is from the 
" Proprietors' Book." The early records of the church are missing. In 



2.*? 

1813j*Rev, Mr. Bradford made diligent search for them, and concluded 
that they were " either lost or never made." — The following' items are 
found upon the town records : — 

Jan. 16, 1733, ''Thomas Lee, Anthony Austin and Samuel Dewey 
"was chosen Tithingmen and Sworn. 

Jan. 30, 1733, " Nath*^! Austin was Chosen to Go and treat with m^ 
" Pumroy or Hire Some other Gentlemen to Preach to us for a time.'' 

Mar. 12, 1734, " Joseph Noble Anthony Austin and Thomas Lee ware 
" Chosen Tythiug Men and Sworn." (The election of Tything-men took 
place at every annual meeting, until within the memory of many now 
living.) 

June 7, 1734, " voted to give m^ Eben® Devotion A Call to the work 
" of the ministrie In this Town — 

" Mathew Noble Ezekiel Ashley and Philip Calender were Chosen a 
" Committee to Treat with m'' Devotion In order for Settling In the 
" work of the Ministrie " — 

Oct. 18, 1734, "voted to allow m'. Ebenezer Devotion fourteen 
" shillings to be paid to Elisha Noble for Keeping m''. Devotions Horse 
" While he was Here." (Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, A. M., graduated at 
Yale College, in 1732; was afterward, I think, pastor of the church at 
Windham, Conn. He died in 1771. He was probably the first man 
to preach the Gospel in what is now Berkshire county.) 

Oct. 18, 1734, the town voted to hire " m^. Benjamin Pumroy" t» 
preach for them six weeks. Dec. 29, they extended him a call. Mar. 
17, 1735, they renewed the call, but in vain. June 26, 1735, they 
extended a call to " m^. Jonathan Hubbard," who accepted. 

[M. N., Jr.] 

(3.) This following is a transcript of the " remarkable " action or resolu- 
tions alluded to in the text, of January 12th, 1773. 

In the following the record is transcribed, as nearly as possible, ^^ ver- 
batim et liferatimJ' It will be perceived that the Scribe who made 
the entry, was unskilled. On the fifth of January, 1773, a Committee " to 
take into Consideration the Grievences which Americans in general and 
the Inhabitants of this province in particular labour under," was *' Schozen, 
viz. Theodore Sedgwick, D" Silas Kellogg, Col° Ashley, Doc' Lem^ 
Barnard, Mr. Aaron Eoot, Major John Fellows, Mr. Philip Callender, 
Cap» W™ Day, Dea'^ Eben Smith, Cap°. Nath^ Austin & Cap"* Stephen 
Dewey." — This Com* reported Jan. 12, 1773 — as follows — 

" The Committee of this Town, Appointed to take into consideration the 
Greviances which Americans in general and the Inhabitants of this Prov- 
ince in particular laber under, and to make a Draught of such proceedings 
as they think are necessary for this Town in these critical circumstances- 
to enter into, Report as follows, viz : that, 



24 

" This Town taking into there serious consideration and deeply lament- 
ing the unhappy situation to which Americans in general and his 
Majestys most faithful subjects the Inliabitance of this Provence in 
perticular are reduced, owing to the jealous Eye with wliich America 
hath been veiwed by several british Administrations, since the Accesicon 
of his present most Greacious Magesty to the throne and viewing witli the 
deepest Sorrow the Design of Great Britain (which is but too apparent to 
every Virtuous Lover of his Country) gradually to deprive us of invaluble 
Rights and previlidges, wliich were transmitted to us by our worthey and 
independent Ancestors at the most laborious and dangerous Expence 
Should asteem ourselves greatly wanting in the Duty we owe ourselves, 
our Country and posterity, Called upon us as we are by our Brethren, the 
respectable Town of Boston, should we neglect with the utmost Firm- 
ness and freedom to express the Sence we have of our present Dangerous 
Situation, always professing, as with Truth we do, the most emicolable 
Regard and Attachment to our most gracious Sovereign and protestant 
Succession as by Law established, we have with that Deferance and 
Respect due to the Country on which we are and always hoped to be 
dependent, entered into the following Resolves, viz 

Bcsolved that Mankind in a state of Nature are equal, free and inde- 
pendent of each Other, and have a right to the undisturbed Enjoyment of 
there lives, there Liberty and Property. 

Resolved that the great end of political Society is to secure in a more 
effectual manner those Rights and previledges wherewith God & Nature 
have made us free — 

Resolved that it hath a tendency to subvert the good end for which 
Society was instituted, to have in any part of the legislative Body an 
Interist seperate from and independent of the Interest of the people in 
general — 

Resolved that affixing a Stipend to the Office of the Governor of the 
provence to be paied by money taken from the people without there con- 
cent creates in him an Inlrest Seperate from and independent of the 
people in general — 

Resolved that the peaceful Enjoyment of any preveliges to the people 
of this provence in a great measure (under God) depends upon the 
uprightness of and independency of the Excutive Officers in general, and 
of the Judges of the Superior Court in peticuler — 

Resolved that if Salleries are affixed to the office of the Judges of the 
superior Court rendering them independent of the people and dependent 
on the Crown for there support (which we have too much Reson to think 
is the Case) it is a precedent tliat may hereafter, conceeding the Deprav- 
ety of human Nature, be improved to purposes big with the ui(»st Obvious 
and fatal consequences to the good people of this province — 



25 

Besqlved that Americans in general (and his Magestes Subjects the 
Inhabitants of this Provence in perticuler, b}' there Charter) are intitled 
to all the Liberties, Priviledges and Immunities of natural born british 
Subjects — 

Resolved That it is a well-known and undoubted priviledge of the 
british Constitution that eveiy Subject hath not only a Right to the free 
and uncontroled injoyment use and Improvement of his estat or property 
so long as he shall continue in the possession of it, but that he shall not 
in any maner be deprived there of in the whool or in part untill his 
conscent geven by himself or his Representative hath been previously for 
that purpous expresly obtained — 

Resolved that the late acts of the parlement of Great Breton expres 
porpos of Rating and regulating the colccting a Revenew in the Colo- 
nies : are unconstitutional as thereby the Just earning of our labours 
and Industry without Any Regard to our own concent are by mere power 
revished from us and un limited power by said acts and oommisions put 
into the hands of Ministeral hirelings are the Deprivation of our inestim- 
able and constitutional priviledge, a Trial by Jury, the determanation of 
our property by a single Judge paid by one party by Money illegally 
taken from the other for that purpos, and the insulting Diference made 
between british and American Subjects are matters truly greavious and 
clearly evince a Disposition to Rule us with the Iron Rod of Power — 

Resolved that the interduction of civil Officers unknown in the Charter 
of this Province with powers which Render Property, Domestic Security 
and Enjoyment of the Inhabitance altogether Insecure are a very great 
greavence. 

Resolved that it is the Right of every subject of Great Breton to be tried 
by his peers of the vicinity, when charged with any crime, that any act 
of the parliment of Great Breatain for Distroying this priviledge and 
tearing away Subjects from there Connections, Friends, Business and the 
possibility of evincing there Innocence, and earring them on bare Sus- 
picion to the Distance of Thousands of Miles for a trial is an treble 
Grevance. [ This is nearly as it is written. It is evident the person who 
entered these minutes into tlie town records, did not understand the pur- 
port, or else was very careless.] 

Resolved That the Great and general Coart of this Province have it in 
there power in consequence of Instrutions from the Ministry only, too 
exempt any Man or Body of Men residing within and Receiving Protec- 
tion from the Laws of this Province from contrebuting there equal Propor- 
tion to wards the Support of Government within the same nor can any 
such instrections or orders from the Ministry of Great Breton Justify Such 
Proceedings [for] should this be the Case it will follow of consequence 
that the whole Province Tax may Be laid and one or more persons as 
sliall Best suit with the Caprice of the Ministry — 



26 

Resolved that any Determination or adjudication of the King in Conn, 
sel witli Regard to the Limits of Provinces in America^ where by Privite 
Property is or may [l)ej affected, is a great grevence ah'eady very 
severly felt by Great NuuiV)ers, who after purchasing Lands of the Only 
Persons whome they would sopose had any Right to Convey have on a 
sudding, by such an adjudication been deprived of there whole Property 
and from a state of affluance reduced to a state of Beggary 

Hesolved That the great and general Coart of this Province can consti- 
tutionly make any Laws or Regulations, Obligatory upon the inhabbitance 
there of residing with in tlie Same — 

Voted That the Town Clark duly Record the prosedings of This Meet- 
ing, and Make a true and attested Copy There of as soon as may be and 
forward the same to David Ingersole Jun'" Esqr, The Representative of 
This Town, at the great and general Court at Boston who is hereby Re- 
quested to consider the above Resolves as the Sence of his Constitu acts, 
[sic] the Town of Sheffield and to the — centituonal Menes [sic] in his 
Power that the Greaviances complained of may be redressed, and where 
as the Province of New York, by the most unjustifiable Prosedings 
have by a late act of there general Assembly extended the Limits of the 
County of Albany East as far as Conneticut River, and under pertence 
of having by that act the legual Jurisdiction with in that part of this 
province, by Said Act included within The County of Albany have exer- 
cised Actual jurisdiction, and the officers of the County of Albany with- 
out the least pretence of any Presept from the Orthojity On this side the 
Line, by Colour of a warrant, executed in that County upon suspison that 
a man had been guilty of a crime in this County, taken him and carried 
him to Albany for examination in Inditement crimes have been tryed, 
to have been cometted at Sheffield in the County of Albany, M'". 
Engersell is here by requested to use his Utmost Influence that the 
Alarming consequences from such proceedings dreaded, may be pre- 
vented & That the Fears of the people may be quieted by a speedy 
Determanation of that unhappy controversy And where as it hath been 
reported that the support given by the gi'eat and general Court to 
the Judges of the Superior Court hath been in addaquate to the service 
performed, M"". EngersoU is here by requested that (if this Report 
shall appear to be founded in truth) lie use his Influence Saleries may 
augmented, to such a sum as shall be sufficient to support the Dignity 
of the office 

Theodore Sedgwick pe Ord 

Which being twice Eeade distinctly It was put to Vote paragraph 
by paragraph Wliether the town would Accept of Such a Report it pascd 
in the affirmative Neniine Contra<liceute. — 

(4.) Tiie first " Town Meeting" in Sheffield was held at the house " M'" 



27 

obadiali Noble" Jan. 16, 1733. The following is the record of the 

meeting : 

"voted inathew Noble Chosen moderator 

<' voted at the Same meeting Hezekiah Noble Chosen Town Clerk and 

" sworn 
'' voted at Same meeting John Smith Philip Calender and Daniel Kellogg 

" was chosen Selectmen 
" voted at the meeting & Daniel Kellogg was chosen Town Treasurer and 

^' Sworn 
"voted at the Same meeting and Joseph Taylor and Elisha Noble was 

"Chosen Constables and Sworn 
" voted at the Same meeting Thomas Lee Anthony Austin and Samuel 

" Dewev was Chosen Tithing men and Sworn 
"voted at the Same meeting Nathaniel Austin and obadiah Noble was 

"Chosen fenceviewers and Sworn 
"voted at the Same meeting and Jonathan Root was Chosen Sirveyer 

"and Sworn " — 

[The names of Taylor and Root are not now found upon our lists of 
voters. The other names still continue with us. M. N., Jr.] 

(5.) These interesting rolls are furnished by Mr. Thomas Austin, of 
Erie, Pcnna. 

"The following is a return of Minute Men in the Third Company 
in the First Regiment in the county of Berkshire July 11, 1776. 

(Signed) Abner Callendee^ 
Clerk. 

SergJ. Natliaiiiel Callender Jonathan Spalding 

Corp'. Solomon Triscot Z'^bulon Spalding 

Joseph Callender Samuel Warn 

Joseph Church Jacob Warn 

Samuel Triscot, j''. Benajah Orcnt 

David Callender Amos Gill 

Setb Triscot Ebenezer Jones 

Elijah Baccus David Dunham, _]••. 
David Keys 

"Roll of Lieut. Enoch Noble's'' Comp.. in Colo. Mark Hopkins Regi- 
ment of Foot Being the first Regiment in the County of Berkshire. 

Dated 
Sheffield, June 13, A. D. 1776. 

Lieu' Enoch Noble " Benjamin Cowle, j'' 

" Jeremiah Hickock " Jasper Saxton 

?evt^* Anthony Austin Clerk Josepii Kingman 

'■ Anthony G<)(Kispied Corp' Joseph Goodvicli 



28 



Corpi. Amos Eldridge Privates. 

" Ebenezer Kellogg " 

" Elisha Smith " 

Drummer. Irie Beach 

Fifer. Darius Butler " 

Privates. Samuel Bush 

" Ephraim Kellogg " 

" Joseph Cook 

" David Hickock " 

" Paul Dewey " 

" John Austin " 

" Obadiah Bush 

" Joseph Seeger 

" David Walker " 

" Nathanial Westover " 

" Aaron Fairchild " 

" Elijah Austin 

" Joel Kellogg " 

" Ephraim Case " 

" Augustine Austin " 

" Gideon Kellogg " 

Whiting Sheldon " 

" Nathanial Cowle " 

" Benjamin Bramin " 

" Ezekiel Noble " 

" John Gotten " 

" Joshua Boardman " 

'' Joseph Taylor " 

" Joseph Corben " 

" William Johnson " 

" William McGachy 

25 Guns, 3 with Bayonets. Every man had Wadding. 



Zachariah Noble 
Silas Marvin 
John Fellows 
Benjamin Bush 
Benjamin Fuller 
Nathaniel Downing 
Noah Hubbard 
Joseph Steele 
Ebenezer Smith, j'. 
Elias Hopkins 
Jonathan Parkes 
Benjamin Spalding 
Dan Raymond 
Samuel Kinsman 
William Beraent 
Aaron Root, j'. 
Tho« Hart 
Silvester Barnard 
Timothy Hubbard 
Thomas Halten 
Samuel Shears 
John Obryn 
Mathew Noble 
Aaron Miller 
Abner Ashley 
Joseph Ghm'chel 
Ruben Jackson 
Aaron Hubbard 
Roger Noble 
Jeremiah Fox 



Third Company of Foot in the 

Jixly 11, 1776. 

Cap'. Roswell Downing 

Lieu'. Elisha Ensign 

" Theophilus Spalding 

Clerk. Abner Callender 

Serg*. Comfort Callender 

" John Hubbell 

" Joab Austin 

Corp' Sam' Joslin 

" Stephen Tuttle 

" William Stephens 
(Privates) 

" William Day, j^ 

" David Ferry 

" Moses Eggleston 

" Joshua Lebaron 



First Regiment County of Berkshire, 

(Privates) Job Westover 

" Zacheus Spalding 

" Shubel Warring 

" James Linzey 

" Samuel Bibbins 

" Noah Westover 

" Johnathan Nicals 

" Samuel Hatch 

" William Roach 

" Henry Keys 

" Jeremiah Dunham 

" John Westover 

" Aaron Taylor 

" Zadock Loomis 

" Enos Kellogg 



29 



(Privjftes) David Clark, j^ 

" Moses Westover 

" Peter Noble 

'' Solomon Noble 

" John Nichols 

" Asa Kellogg 

'' Daniel Taylor 

" Daniel Pattin 

" Philip Callender,]''. 

" Aron Slate 

" Linze Joslin 

" Jesse Hoocker 

" Elisha Ensign, /. 



Nehemiah Kellogg. 



23 Guns 

5 Bayonets 
16 Blankets 
4f lbs Powder 

220 Balls 
30 Flints 

8 Knapsacks 
19 Horns 

8 Priming Wires 

6 Brushes 

[M. N., Jr.] 



(6.) [Perhaps as notable an example of the general use of ardent spirits, 
and as early a conception of the dangers of such use, as can be found 
anywhere, is given in these extracts from the Sheffield town-records. 

May 22, 1735 — " voted to Set the meeting House on a Certain Nole of 
"Land Easterly of M^ William Goodriches Dwelling House which is In 
" the Street or Highway 

" at the same meeting voted to allow three Barrels of Good Beare towards 
" or for the Raising of the meeting house 

"at the same meeting voted to allow twenty Gallons of Rumb towards 
" or for the Raising of the meeting house or for the town use 
" at the same meeting voted to allow twenty pounds of Suger to go with 
''the Rumb 

" at the same meeting Obadiah Noble and Ensign Ashley ware made 
"choice of to Dool out Drink to the labourers when it is convenient 
" and Likewiss to Sell Drink to Strangers or towns People and also to 
" Recieve the money likewiss Ensign Ashley to Serve as Pinman 
" at the same meeting voted to allow no Drink to the Labourers after 
" they are Dismist from Labour 

" at the Same meeting voted to fine all persons that are Delinquent, viz 
" Such Persons as are Capable or Servisable In Raising of the meeting 
"House on the Days Here after mentioned the Sum of ten shillings a 
" Day for Each Defolt." 

Such were the regulations adopted and preparations made "for the 
Raising of the meeting house." These men are not to be judged by our 
standard. There was not the same moral delinquency shown in this action 
of theirs that is seen in the use of " grab bags," and " guess cakes," and 
" raffles," so common at the present day, for these things are known to be 
wrong, and are forbidden by law. 

The other extract is forty-two years later, March 11, 1777. 

" Voted that no Person shall Sell Spirittuous Liquors without liberty 
from the Selectmen and Committee of Inspection also that they Inspect 
Licenced houses ^" M. N., Jr.] 



52 



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